I am a Senior Political Contributor at Forbes and the official 'token lefty,' as the title of the page suggests. However, writing from the 'left of center' should not be confused with writing for the left as I often annoy progressives just as much as I upset conservative thinkers. In addition to the pages of Forbes.com, you can find me every Saturday morning on your TV arguing with my more conservative colleagues on "Forbes on Fox" on the Fox News Network and at various other times during the week serving as a liberal talking head on other Fox News and Fox Business Network shows. I also serve as a Democratic strategist with Mercury Public Affairs.

Congratulations to President Obama on his victory and to Governor Mitt Romney for staging a hard fought campaign.

So, what have we learned?

Here is my top-five list:

1. It’s the demographics, stupid.

As frequent readers of this column and the comments section— or those who have listened to me discussing this issue on television and radio—know, I have said from the outset that this election was not nearly so much about the economy as it was about the demographics. As we review how President Obama put together last night’s victory, we see just how true this is.

Unlike four years ago when Barack Obama managed to win men by just one percentage point over John McCain, this time around the exit polling reveals that the President lost the men to Governor Romney—taking only 45 percent to Romney’s 52 percent—but still succeeded in winning the election.

The Obama win is very much the result of a 12 point edge with women—including winning the hugely important unmarried women category by a stunning 38 point margin—the 93 percent of the African-American vote and 69 percent of the Hispanic vote.

This how the presidency is won in modern day America.

Of equal importance is the fact that Obama’s tally with the growing Hispanic community improved by 4 percent over his 2008 totals.

The message is loud and clear and those politicians and parties that refuse to hear it will face a very depressing future. The demographics of America have changed big time. Every month, 50,000 Hispanics turn 18 years old. The very fact that the GOP could not win this election when running against a president with high unemployment numbers and a healthcare reform law that Americans— allegedly—hate, tells the tale:

The era of our government being chosen by old white guys is, officially, over.

2. Eight hundred million dollars does not buy you an election after all.

This morning, the United States of America is awash with billionaires and millionaires waking to a collective hangover borne of the realization that they have wasted about 800 million dollars. Let that sink in for a moment as one struggles to imagine how these people can cast this catastrophic loss as anything other than the single stupidest investment of their wealthy lives.

This, in my estimation, is a victory for average Americans that is every bit as important as the Obama win. It turns out all that cash does not buy an election after all. Take that Citizens United!

3. Maybe we don’t hate Obamacare quite so much as we thought we did.

I know this is a tough one for many readers to swallow, but the moment has come to face this reality—Obamacare is here to stay.

There were some other big winners of the 2012 election beyond the politicians. That would be the pollsters who have been under serious fire throughout this election, consistently facing a conservative punditocracy claiming that their polling processes were grossly misleading as a result of an outdated modeling structure that over-counted Democrats.

It was this professed failure in the modeling that, we were told, would shock us all on election night when Romney would produce an unexpected landslide electoral victory for the GOP.

Of course, that didn’t happen.

In reviewing the poll of polls, it turns out that virtually all of the major polling firms were well within the margin of error—both nationally and in their battleground state surveys. They got it right—conservative pundits (are you listening Karl Rove?) and radio talk show hosts got it completely and utterly wrong. To that end, Nate Silver of the New York Times deserves a special shout out. Despite the conservative punditocracy’s constant claims that Nate would meet his demise on election night, Silver hit his predictions right on the nose.

In many ways, Bill Clinton won his third term last night. He may not have been elected president, but there is absolutely no question that the man who did win very well might have gone down to defeat but for the efforts of President William Jefferson Clinton.

Beginning with Clinton’s masterful speech at the Democratic National Convention where he explained it all in a way that Obama could never quite manage, it was Bill Clinton who managed to convince wavering voters from the key demographics that it was ok to stay with Barack Obama.

Bill Clinton is back in the White House. He may not be sitting in the big chair or holding court in the Oval Office, but he is filling an enormously important seat at the table.

And if Secretary Hillary Clinton decides she wants to run for the job in 2016?

I think it is more than evident that that the keys to the historically talented Obama campaign machine will be handed over to Hillary wrapped in a bow and with the appreciation of a grateful president.

Bonus: Donald Trump must now go away.

We’ve endured Trump’s grandstanding and fear mongering for far too many years. Have we now, at last, had enough?

At a point during last night’s vote count when it looked like Romney might win the popular vote (he didn’t) with Obama taking the electoral college and, therefore, the presidency, Trump graced us with the following tweets:

“This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!”

“More votes equals a loss…revolution!”

Apparently, being Trump means never having to acknowledge the election of 2000.

In recognition that Trump has far outlived his usefulness as an entertainer and provocateur, I make this post-election gift to you all–I will, never again, write the name Donald Trump on the pages of this column. He is now, officially, dead to me.

Now, I believe the 2016 New Hampshire primary is set for…..

contact Rick at thepolicypage@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @rickungar

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

Rick, You’ve nailed it! You would have thought that people would have understood the baseball analogy by now. You can’t buy a World Series Champion. (NY Yankees listening?) Like it or not Obamacare is here. Fortunately some issues like gay marriage found some victories as did women in congress. That’s overall very encouraging. Donald Trump should shut up finally. (but he won’t of course) Yes, Bill Clinton is a masterful politician who should never be underestimated again. Obama also has shown that he understands grassroots organization and how important it is in getting out the vote, let alone his message. Kudos earned.

Now, how do we begin to heal this polarized nation? Are we going to submit to the will of bigger and more powerful government or will we take responsibility for more of our actions and lives and learn to work together rationally and inclusively? When are we going to live by the Golden Rule? Really. When? Or are we going to keep on insisting that our government to do more and more and continue to spend more and more?

The GOP has ignored all the signs of a changing America. For the sake of this comment let’s go back to the turn of the century. It is the year 1998 and the Bush family HAS DECIDED it is time for the younger Bush, George W. to be President. Think about this, one family gathers, for Thanksgiving, or another holiday, and they arbitrarily decide to anoint the favorite son at the time, that his place in history is upon him ! Forget what’s going on in the country, economics, demographics, social issues….it doesn’t matter. He is a BUSH, and he will take his rightful spot just as his daddy did before him! His older brother, Jeb is governor in the state of Florida, the younger sibling, Neill, in unavailable due to his starring role in the destruction of the Saving & Loan industry a few years back when his daddy, George Herman Walker Bush, Sr. was a Vice President under Ronald Reagan. Together, the two of them saw to it that Neill was able to walk away from the biggest theft in modern history and NEVER spend one day in jail! But I digress, back to George W. Bush and the republican party. You see, the blue bloods of this country really don’t care what is going on around them so long as they are able to be hung in oil, encased in a frame, inside the White House. That my friends is what it is all about for these folks; they feel it is a entitlement, a God given right of theirs to go after with reckless abandon, spend millions of dollars, campaign all over the country, say yes, to everybody, say no when it matter’s, DO WHATEVER IT TAKES to get elected, do your 8 years and ride off into the sunset and write your memoirs! If the country slips into a recession, depression, oh well, they have people in place to take care of that! If we are attacked, or there is a natural disaster, by all means, acknowledge it, inspect it, and look Presidential doing it! Well, now, the winds of change are blowing, and this type of mentality will not work ever again! THe GOP either changes and do it fast, or they as a party will die a slow death much like their mascot the elepahant…we have all seen the pictures of the mighty paciderm who is stuck in the tarpit. He bascially must stay and sink or he starves to death or dies fom lack of water. Meanwhile, the vultures are in the trees waiiting patiently to start picking. This will be the the fate of the grand old party unless they wise up & take a look around them….&…not just from their front porch of a 100 acre ranch or an ocean front summer estate.

I am a middle aged white man and even I know that, without a constitution, we have a welfare mobocray and not a republic. Welcome to the world of welfare beneficiaries. Now you can be female, non-white, fat and unemployed and spend whoever’s left’s taxes to your hearts content. Don’t worry about the debt or the money printing. that has always worked out well. Oh by the way, I am going to pay zero in taxes, since I am, now, self sufficient.

As a Canadian – where elections take 3 months instead of 3 years – and there are strict rules about campaign funding – the whole cost of the U.S. elections was shocking to me. And Obama’s group spent a lot too! It really made me feel that the ‘American’ dream that anyone can get elected was totally false cause without a billion dollars – you don’t have much chance. Haven’t checked lately but tried to find out if Bachmann and her millions won her seat!

For some reason, my comment appeared under the last one as a comment on his comment instead of a comment on the article. So trying again.

As a Canadian – where elections take 3 months instead of 3 years – and there are strict rules about campaign funding – the whole cost of the U.S. elections was shocking to me. And Obama’s group spent a lot too! It really made me feel that the ‘American’ dream that anyone can get elected was totally false cause without a billion dollars – you don’t have much chance. Too bad Bachmann and her millions won her seat again!

$800 million doesn’t buy you a presidency, but spending 5 trillion in borrowed money on a failed attempt to create new jobs does. Disapproval of enslaving the unborn to pay for consumption isn’t a likely response from an uneducated populace – precisely why the Democrats need to keep their ranks filled.

Traditionally the Democrats befriended anyone who would take money and vote for more, not a club known for exclusivity. The D’s are now expanding the seductive arms of dependency by recruiting the new demographic cohorts. The details are as ever – the catechism of victim status and the liturgy of entitlement – ‘I am owed because I breathe’.

The Republicans were once effective at constricting money flowing to such squalor, but their current irrelevance long predates 2012. They became the Useless Party when they lost even that influence (including its ethical moorings), nominally starting with squanderer-in-chief Dubya.

There is a clear challenge in front of the R’s, should they rediscover a moral core to ethical patriotism and abandon petrification as a political strategy. That is to make it clear to the huddled masses learning to get for free that benefits must be paid for, and that working in the market economy is the proper means for doing so. That is a less attractive prospect than the entitlement politics of voting for a living, but dignity is more attractive than the plantation life of the designated victim.

If President Obama were to continue to take his cues from Mr. Clinton, he could do a lot worse than grasping what the former president, no fool, realized when thrashed in the midterm elections of 1994. To wit; a sober respect for the power and danger in a market economy is the beginning of responsible and effective economic policy, itself the basis of civil life.

Rick, please explain to us the real cost of Healthcare for healthy people and people with pre-existing condition. I am not going away until I understand why is it the gruber report seems to imply a 2014 where healthy people pay 2.7k premium a year per person when people with pre-existing conditions pay 1.3k premium a year per person.

Please explain this in the interest of my smallish brain and enable my full support and understanding of President Obama’s exhaustive plan.

That isn’t exactly what the Gruber report is saying. As a result of the Affordable Care Act, beginning in 2014, health insurance in the individual marketplace will be sold on a ‘community rated’ basis which, interestingly, is how health insurance began in the first place. That means that two people buying the identical insurance policy, even if one has never been sick while the other has a history of illness, will pay the same premium rates. Accordingly, the individual with no history of pre-existing conditions will pay the same thing as somebody who was once treated for cancer. Certainly, this means that some healthy individuals will pay a little more than they would have under the old system. Conversely, assuming someone with a pre-existing condition could even get health insurance before passage of the ACA (which they typically could not) they would only have gotten it at a greatly increased price.What this new approach does is allow everyone to purchase health insurance. I can tell you that I, prior to the ACA, had no chance whatsoever of purchasing a health insurance policy in the individual market given my own past health history. I only have insurance because I live in a state where there is ‘guaranteed issue’ which means that if I work for a corporation with two or more employees, the health insurance companies cannot deny coverage. But I do pay a fortune. I certainly understand how younger, healthier people are troubled that they are, in some respects, picking up some of the tab for people who are, say,between 50 and 65 who have a pre-existing condition. But I like to remind these younger people that the day will come faster than they think when they will very much appreciate this. I also like to point out that this law is working to the benefit of their parents who have spent a few bucks subsidizing the lives of their children…so call it a little pay-back. Hope this helps.

Thank you, Rick; as always, you’ve brightened my day–something I still can’t believe is happening courtesy of Forbes. Yes, au revoir to Donald Trump…but as long as we’re dreaming, wouldn’t it would be a far, far better thing if Mr. Trump took Karl Rove and Grover Norquist with him?